Here comes the Sun

If only the sun was coming! I could really do with it but instead it's a damp and grey day so I will have to content myself with these sunny pages. They were inspired by the latest prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures that read: "Here comes the Sun".  This spread is also heavy influenced again by MaryBeth Shaw's lesson on Creative Jumpstart 2017. I'm working in the notebook I mentioned in earlier posts and to which I now refer as the Peacock journal because it features sparkling peacocks on the cover. To make the pages sturdier I'm gluing them together as well as added a hefty dose of gesso before I begin to work on them.

I used collage with vintage papers, tissue wrap, paper napkins, scrapbook paper, a postage stamp, and vintage  textured wallpaper. Then Distress markers and paint were added with stencil S314 Entangling Threads from Stencilgirl Products, as well as S191 Open Buildings. The sun was cut from that textural wallpaper and I added some gold accents as well as sparkles (sadly you will not be able to see this on the pictures).

 I also used a mica spray in red such as on the left hand side of the picture above. 

 Some of the stencilled images were outlined in white. 

The Power

The first prompt for 2017 on Colour Me Positive 2017 was: Power. I know I mentioned I wasn't going to continue with CMP but somehow I seem to  have grasped my art journal (A4 Dylusions) and set to, probably encouraged by the fact that I won a pack of collage papers for my contribution in week 53. It's winging it's way to me from Australia! The other factor is that sometimes I just want to immerse myself in art journalling. In any case I found a great quotation by Joseph Stalin: "I believe in one thing only: the power of human will". Stalin wasn't a man who lived up to his own quotations much but this one has always spoken to me, regardless of the person who said it.

I used collage with a magazine image, vintage text, wallpaper segments and postage stamps (from the USSR, of course!).

 The background was done with stencilling using L450 Fantasia stencil by Stencilgirl and rubber stamping with the Circles and Dots stamp from Carabelle Studio. Acrylic ink was dripped down the pages as well.

 The text was rubber stamped too using an alphabet set apart from the word POWER, which is collaged.

I'm coming to the end of this particular art journal so the pages are not lying quite flat any more hence the photography on the slant!

Add Sparkle

This week's prompt on Colour Me Positive was: Sparkle. The art challenge told us to use something sparkly on our pages. My personal sparkle took an unauthorized leave of absence on the 24th June and although she has tried to return several times since then, events forced her to stay away. I'm trying to entice her back but so far with limited success.

However adding sparkle to my spread (in the A4 Dylusions art journal) might speed up her return, I hope.

I started these pages (they were already covered in blue paint when I began work) by collaging on some pieces of a very textural wallpaper as well as pieces of Tim Holtz's butterfly themed tissue wrap and also deli paper previously stencilled using the November 2014 large stencil from the Stencilgirl Club. 

I added colour using two of the new Dylusions paint colours, just ou,t and then set to work with stencils (all from Stencilgirl) and the Polka Dot art foamie (designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer for Artfoamies). I have lost sight of some of the stencils I used but they included the small sunburst from the August 2015 Club, the medium one from January 2015 Club as well as L438 Stylized Fireworks. The stars come from this stencil too. They were outlined with a sparkly gel pen.

Then it was time to add the sparkle in the shape of metallic paints and mica sprays. As ever it's hard to get the sparkly effect on the pictures but in real life the spread glitters very satisfyingly.

I used the quote: "When in doubt, add sparkle" for the pages and partly wrote, partly stencilled on the words as shown.

Kaleidoscope of Circumstance

There are several more spreads in my Wanderlust 2016 art journal but there hasn't been time to share them here on the blog. But at least I'm keeping up with the art making which is the most important thing. We get a prompt for our journals twice a month and this prompt dates back to May when it asked us: "What do I have to let go of?

I'm working in a very small (page size 5 x 7") journal called the Vintage Vanity Art Journal designed by Finnabair for Prima. It feels like I'm finally getting to grips both with the size and those large rings. I think the fact that I'm not in love with the journal itself helps me to be more free in my art making if that makes sense. I'm far less precious about things going wrong than in my large albums and as a result I mess around a lot and am liking the results.

I started with a lot of rubber stamping, both on the underlying (and now barely visible) layers and on the top layer, using my favourite spiral stamp (designed by France Papillon for Stampendous) as well as the circular stamp from the EEA01 set designed by Everything Art (the organizers of Wanderlust) for PaperArtsy.

I collaged on textured wallpaper. I picked up an entire roll at the last meeting of Thistle Quilters just because I loved the pattern and now have enough for the rest of my lifetime! So you can expect to see it again.

I used large sequin waste to stencil on the circles and also used parts of the large stencil from the April 2016 Stencilgirl Club (the little squares).

I found the text I wanted to add in one of my vintage books and it refers back to our prompt. It says: "self-inflicted pain, the memory of the past, the kaleidoscope of circumstance". Finally acrylic inks were dripped down the pages. I also did some writing on the pages using a pencil.

Who wants to live for ever?

I am trying to catch up here on this blog with my Dylusions art journal and that's not going to be an easy task because as soon as I post here I make more spreads in the journal. In fact, I'm continually thinking about future pages and the only thing stopping me making them non stop is that the weather is a great deal colder at the moment. That means it takes much longer for things to dry and thus stopping mid flow. But the pull to paint is very strong within me. So there is every chance you'll see a lot of pages here too. This particular one was made on the 21st April and was influenced by the same event as the spread I posted previously here although it is a much more optimistic spread.

I started as I usually do with paints and stencils. I used the April 2015 stencils from the Stencilgirl Club. All the stencils from the club are gorgeous but these particular ones designed by Jessica Sporn are very close to my heart, capturing as they do, the free flower power spirit of the 60s and 70s: love and peace and all that! I decided to add more flowers of my own and found them in a sample wallpaper book that I'm lucky enough to possess (in fact I have about 4). This particular wallpaper is called Monchique and was produced by Osborne & Little. I had such fun colouring in the flowers!  Washi tape,and vintage papers, were added as well as the main texts that were meaningful to me in the context of the spread. The circles were added using sequin waste.

 Outlining was done with black and white markers as well as water soluble oil pastels,  and it was then that I realized how appropriate the music I was listening to while making this page, was to it. The song was by Beth Nielson Chapman and is called: "How we Love". I wrote some of the lyrics around the flowers as shown.